STUDIO 100 JOINS YOUNGFILMS AND B WATER ON ANIMATION SERIES “JOHNNY SINCLAIR”

Munich, 9 June 2022. Studio 100, one of the leading independent studios for children’s and family entertainment, joins forces with Hamburg based youngfilms and international prodco B Water Studios to bring the new CGI adventure-comedy series “Johnny Sinclair: Ghost Hunter” (52 x 11’) to life.

The production will be realized in association with Studio 100 Media’s Munich based Studio Isar Animation. Studio 100 Media takes over worldwide rights distribution as well as licensing & merchandising. Produced by Henning Windelband (Conni and the Cat, Conni) and Dirk Hampel (Pettson and Findus, Treasure Trekkers), the series is targeted at 6 – 11 year olds. Production will commence at the end of this year and the series will be available in 2024.

“Johnny Sinclair: Ghost Hunter” is based on the current best-selling novels by Sabine Städing (Magnolia Steel, Petronella Apfelmus) and is a spin-off of the cult franchise John Sinclair: Ghost Hunter, a ghost crime novel series whose success spans from the late 1970ies, where it was part in over 250 million sold penny dreadful novellas, until present time with over 6 million sold novels and 200 radio play episodes. Jason Dark, the mastermind author behind the original John Sinclair, endorses this spin-off project.

Studio 100 Media, youngfilms and B Water will be introducing “Johnny Sinclair” to the international market and looking for commissioning broadcasters and presales at this year’s MIFA in Annecy.

Commenting on the partnership, Martin Krieger, CEO at Studio 100 Media, says, “We feel privileged to be part of this collaboration. The cult of the original book series goes way back and we are absolutely convinced that this spin-off for children has all the right elements for an exciting and successful series. We are looking forward to working with Henning Windelband, his team and B Water.”

“Searching for exciting content that moves, I came across the novels of “Johnny Sinclair”. Creating a youthful counterpart for the extremely successful cult ghost hunter John Sinclair and thus making it accessible to a new, younger target group works fantastically. “Johnny Sinclair” is a modern fairy tale and a strong brand, which is entertaining, thrilling, educational, international and unique. It is already a great pleasure and lots of fun to work with our partners B Water and Studio 100.” adds Henning Windelband, CEO at youngfilms.

Dirk Hampel, CEO at B Water says, “We belive there is a real lack of a funny action comedy ghost buster series in the market and Johnny Sinclair has all the potential to fill that gap.”

Synopsis

Johnny Sinclair can see ghosts. And many are out there to get him! Guided by a magical talking skull, the young ghost hunter Johnny and his best friends hunt monsters, spectres, and many other spooky creatures – while trying to survive the ghastliest place of all: School…

About Studio 100 Media

Studio 100 Media is an internationally active production and distribution company for high-quality children’s and family entertainment. Among the well-known brands under Studio 100 Media’s umbrella are “Maya the Bee”, “Mia and me”, “Heidi”, “Vic the Viking” and “100% Wolf”. The company is a subsidiary of the Belgian Studio 100 Group and has an extensive program portfolio, develops and produces new animated series and feature films and distributes them worldwide. Other business areas include international licensing of brand rights, the home entertainment label Studio 100, the company’s pay TV channel Junior and its animation studio Studio Isar Animation founded in 2018. Within the Studio 100 Group, Studio 100 Media brands also have a home in nine theme parks – in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. Studio 100 is one of the largest independent European companies for kids and family entertainment. www.studio100group.com

About youngfilms

Henning Windelband founded youngfilms in 2003 in Hamburg and specialized on content for a young audience. The European co-production and award winning animated feature CONNI AND THE CAT was successfully released in spring 2020. Since 2012 the tv series CONNI is still one of the most popular series of Germany’s broadcaster KiKA. The 52 episodes were sold to tv and streaming platforms all over the world. The live-action Sci-Fi series THE MARS PROJECT, an international co-production based on the novels by Andreas Eschbach, is in development. In addition, youngfilms is developing the live-action feature ANNA SAVES CHRISTMAS funded by the MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and the European co-production Thriller THE LAST OF HIS KIND.

Further serial projects are in development, like NIGHT CAT, an animated series by director Jessica Drechsler and THE FINSTERSTEINS by the novels of Kai Lüftner, a live-action family entertainment. www.youngfilms.de

About  B Water Studios

B Water Studios are located in Barcelona, Cologne, Santa Cruz – Tenerife, Budapest and Montreal. They currently have three TV series , one TV movie, and one feature film made for 360°dome projection in production. They are known for their pioneering in real-time pipelines, both Unreal and Unity and working on premium TV series like ZAFARI with Universal or TREASURE TREKKERS, which is a shooting star in China with over 100.000.000 views in 4 month on Youko.

Founder Dirk Hampel is working over 26 years in the animation industry and has produced various TV series and feature films. He worked his way up to production management and overseas supervisor, and had founded several studios before creating B Water Studios. He also has worked as a director for tv channels like Nickelodeon or ZDF and writes children books like The Magic of my Name, which sold over 500.000 copies so far. www.b-waterstudios.com